president of russia vladimir putin put new distance today between his government and the regime in syria. in his annual news conference, putin insisted his country is not protecting syrian president bashar assad. he urged assad to hold talks with the opposition, and negotiate an end to the bloodshed. >> ( translated ): we are not concerned about the fate of assad's regime. we understand what is going on there and that his family has been in power for 40 years. the changes are undoubtedly needed. we are worried about a different thing-- what next? we simply don't want the current opposition, having become the authorities, to start fighting the people who are the current authorities and become the opposition and we don't want this to go on forever. >> sreenivasan: on another matter, putin indicated he plans to sign a law banning u.s. adoptions of russian children. that move is retaliation for a new u.s. law aimed at punishing russian human rights violators. in u.s. economic news, growth during the summer quarter was better than first estimated. the commerce department reported today the ec